THIS WEEKEND Ben
Stiller ruled Christmas weekend for the second time in two years with his
new effects-driven comedy Night at the Museum
which opened at number one with $42.2M over four days, according to final
figures released by Fox. The PG-rated pic about a night watchman who battles
artifacts that come to life in a museum averaged a muscular $11,446 over
the Friday-to-Monday holiday period from an ultrawide release in 3,688
theaters including 72 Imax venues. Two years ago, Stiller topped this same
holiday weekend with Meet the Fockers which
bowed to $46.1M in three days and $70.5M over five days. Robin Williams,
Ricky Gervais, and Dick Van Dyke co-star in Museum.
The pic did better-than-expected business with the non-family crowd which
helped the overall gross swell.

According to official studio figures, Friday bowed to $12.4M, Saturday
saw a slight 3% increase to $12.8M, Sunday tumbled 59% to $5.3M, and Monday
surged 124% to $11.8M. The overall box office always falls sharply on Christmas
Eve, but enjoys a vibrant rebound on Christmas Day when moviegoers have
more time to visit their local multiplex.

Sony saw its Will Smith drama The Pursuit of
Happyness fall one notch to second place with $23.1M over four
days. The true-life tale's three-day gross dropped 44% from its opening
weekend and the cume rose to $61.4M after 11 days.

Opening in third place was Sylvester Stallone's Rocky
Balboa with $17M in four days and $26.7M over the six days since
its Wednesday debut. The relatively low-cost $24M pic averaged a respectable
$5,636 over the Friday-to-Monday period from 3,017 locations. The PG-rated
film is the sixth and reportedly final installment in the popular boxing
franchise and finds the fighter coming out of retirement for one final
match. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

Oscar winners Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie saw their new CIA thriller
The Good Shepherd bow in fourth place
with $14.1M from 2,215 theaters for a good $6,357 average over the Friday-to-Monday
span. Directed by Robert De Niro, the top ten's only R-rated pic played
to an adult audience with studio data showing that the audience was 73%
over the age of 30 and 53% male. Reviews were mixed.

In fifth place was Paramount's family film Charlotte's
Web with $9.6M (off 30% when comparing three-day periods) for
a cume of $28.4M after 11 days. Fox's fantasy adventure Eragon
followed in sixth collapsing 69% in its second weekend to $9.3M. The dragon
tale has taken in $39.8M in ten days and seems to have burned through much
of its total audience in the first week.

The Paramount/DreamWorks musical sensation Dreamgirls
expanded nationally on Monday and jumped into seventh place
with only one day of wide release. The PG-13 pic grossed $9M over the four-day
period including a stunning $8.7M on Monday from 852 theaters for a scorching
average of $10,242 on Christmas Day alone. It played in just three theaters
with $25 tickets in the ten days leading up to its expansion and has totaled
$9.6M to date. Starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy, and
newcomer Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls has
earned five Golden Globe nominations and is considered a major contender
for the Oscars hoping to follow in the footsteps of recent Best Picture
winner Chicago which was also based
on a successful musical.

Dreamgirls generated the third-best
Christmas Day opening ever and even ranked second for the day behind Night
at the Museum despite playing in less than one-fourth of the
number of theaters. Paramount will expand the acclaimed film to about 2,000
playdates on January 12 for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday session.

The football drama We Are Marshall
opened in eighth place with $8.6M from 2,606 venues for a lukewarm $3,290
average for Warner Bros. The PG-rated pic stars Matthew McConaughey and
may have suffered from strong competition from Rocky
Balboa which clearly was the more popular feel-good sports drama
of the holiday weekend. Marshall tells
the true story of a college community that tries to rebuild after most
of its football players and coachs die in a plane crash. Cume is $9.7M.

Sony's The Holiday dropped 38% to
$7.1M giving the Cameron Diaz-Kate Winslet film $37.4M to date. New Line
rounded out the top ten with The Nativity Story
which took in $6.7M raising its total to $33.3M.

MGM's new horror film Black Christmas
opened on Monday with a one-day scare of $3.3M from 1,278 locations. With
a decent one-day average of $2,588, the thriller hopes to rope in teen
and young adult audiences during the week and into the New Years holiday
frame. On Monday, it ranked sixth for the day.

In limited release, Clint Eastwood's acclaimed World War II drama Letter
From Iwo Jima got off to a solid start grossing $122,605 over
four days from only five theaters. Averaging $24,521 per site, the Japanese-language
film has taken in $162,000 since its mid-week bow and has already spent
the last three weeks at number one in Japan. Iwo
Jima is the companion film to the director's fall release Flags
of Our Fathers and is expected to be a major contender at the
Oscars.

Warner Independent opened The Painted Veil
in four theaters and grossed $71,813 in four days for a strong
$17,953 average. Since its Wednesday launch, the Edward Norton period pic
has collected $93,000 and on Friday the distributor will expand to 37 locations.

Sony Classics grossed $712,760 from 60 theaters for Zhang Yimou's Curse
of the Golden Flower for an encouraging $11,879 average over
four days. Cume is $727,000.

Miramax's Peter O'Toole pic Venus
bowed to $54,000 over the Friday-to-Monday period from three venues for
a promising $18,009 four-day average. Cume since Wednesday stands at $60,000.

A handful of action films dropped out of the top ten this weekend. Sony's
James Bond actioner Casino Royale fell
45% to $4.5M in its sixth frame to boost its domestic cume to $145M. Overseas,
Casino smashed through the $300M mark
this weekend raising its international tally to $304.4M and its worldwide
cume to nearly $450M. It now ranks as the highest-grossing Bond film ever
worldwide, when not factoring in ticket price increases during the franchise's
four-decade run.

Leonardo DiCaprio's Blood Diamond
fell 53% to $4.8M over four days putting the total at a disappointing $26.8M
for Warner Bros. Buena Vista reported a four-day gross of $4.5M for Mel
Gibson's Apocalypto which has taken
in a respectable $36.2M to date easily making it the top-grossing foreign
language film of 2006.

The top ten films grossed $146.6M over four days which was off 2% from
last year when King Kong remained at
number one with $33.3M over its four-day frame.

Compared to four-day projections, Night at
the Museum opened better than my $34M forecast while Rocky
Balboa was very close to my $16M prediction. The
Good Shepherd bowed just one notch above my $13M projection
and We Are Marshall opened below my
$14M forecast.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.